EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
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80 The questions posed The study posed several questions to patients to gauge satisfaction and results. One question was whether or not patients would recommend L ASIK or contact lenses to a friend or family member. Dr. Price said there was a high agreement rate for both vision correction methods. The next question asked whether patients believed that LASIK works better than wearing contact lenses. "We had 83% strongly agree and 13% agree, so overall 96% of the people thought LASIK was better for them than contacts," he said. O ther questions addressed night driving and dry eyes. Patients were asked if they had difficulty driving at night because of their vision, and Dr. Price specifically focused on the groups of people who either had no problems driving at night and those who had severe problems. Dr. Price noted that the reported rate of night driving problems decreased after LASIK both among those who had previously worn g lasses and those who had used con- tact lenses. "We see that the percent- age of people having no problems [who previously had] glasses went from 39% to 54%, a 15% improve- ment among those who previously wore glasses," he said. "For those in contacts, it improved by 21%." He added that those who stayed in con- tacts showed virtually no change. The percentage with severe problems was small and did not change signif- icantly after LASIK. " Overall LASIK improves night driving vision and that was very significant," he said. To assess dry eye, patients were asked how often in the past week they had experienced dry eye symp- toms. They were also asked about the number of times a day they use artificial tears. The percentages of p atients reporting dry eye symptoms were higher than expected among both glasses and contact lens wear- ers and the percentage increased more after LASIK in those who formerly wore glasses. Conclusion "This study sets an appropriate benchmark for LASIK," Dr. Price s aid. "It compares two widely accepted treatments for refractive error." LASIK and contact lenses both entail some risk. "Both provide more functional and aesthetic correction than glasses," he said. Dr. Price noted that the infor- mation from this study is important to help put LASIK into the correct perspective. "It's also important to realize that LASIK improves vision for night driving relative to both contacts and glasses, and very importantly, there's a need for improved dry eye treatments for all forms of visual correction." Follow-up "To our knowledge, this is the first time a longitudinal prospective study has been done to assess vision and satisfaction with LASIK and con- tact lenses," Dr. Price said. "Before we were just looking at the final refractive results patients have, and as time has gone by, there's been a move by some people to compare LASIK to an emmetropic perfect eye that probably doesn't exist." "I think as clinicians, we have some general ideas on how things are going to be, but I was surprised with a number of the results," Dr. Price said. Although doctors tend to see patients who are experiencing problems, it was nice to see how pa- tients were doing overall. He added that an interesting aspect of the study is that it gauges only patient response and doesn't factor in the opinions of the doctors doing the procedures. EW Editors' note: Dr. Price has no financial interests related to this article. Contact information Price: fprice@pricevisiongroup.net EW REFRACTIVE SURGERY 8 0 March 2014 Sponsored by ZEISS Cataract Suite: Maximizing Your Toric IOL Practice 11:30 AM Ð 12:00 PM Registration and Lunch 12:00 Ð 1:00 PM Program Join our panel of experts as they discuss how the ZEISS Cataract Suite substantially improves workflow from the office through to the OR. Learn how the IOLMaster ® 500, CALLISTO eye ® and OPMI LUMERA ® 700 empower surgeons to achieve the expert outcomes patients expect. Moderator: Roger F. Steinert, MD Professor and Director The Gavin Herbert Eye Institute UCI School of Medicine Faculty: Mitchell A. Jackson, MD Founder/Director Jackson Eye Jonathan D. Solomon, MD Surgical/Refractive Director Solomon Eye Associates Liem Trinh, MD Ophthalmic Surgeon Liem Trinh Save the Date B O S T O N 2 014 Saturday, April 26 Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel Grand Ballroom (concourse level) 425 Summer Street – adjacent to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (Skybridge located on level 2 of convention center) Register now: www.EyeWorld.org/meetings/Zeiss SUR.5976 Rev. B LASIK continued from page 78 76-87 Refractive_EW March 2014-DL_Layout 1 3/6/14 3:17 PM Page 80